Onward!

This past week has been so full. Full of ideas, full of travel, and full of emotions. We went out of town to visit a few colleges and it was honestly great to get off the track. Warm weather and sunshine didn’t hurt either (gratuitous plane photo below).

I’m back at it, and am about to embark on yet another #The100DayProject. I know, I swore after the last one I’d be done. What tends to happen is that I complete it, and feel so good about everything! Proud! Accomplished! And then I crash creatively.

Remember this epic, 1-can-a-day I painted? Here’s a snippet of them all together (they didn’t fit in the frame).

But, as we all know, these are rough times and the fact that I can put aside time everyday to make art is a luxury, and I will keep that mindset in place.

It’s like a marathon—you have to prepare and set yourself up for success. This year year I will get back to my painting practice, and this is the perfect opportunity.

So here’s what I’ve collected:

I know it doesn’t look like much, but I’ve had these old end sheets for YEARS. I collected them during a short stint I’d done at UC Berkeley, along with this lovely book cover. It’s perfect—raw junk (to some) that I will hopefully transform into something manageable and pretty (tbd) at the end of my 100 days. As you can see, these are all random-sized papers, so in the spirit of preparation, I trimmed them all to be no larger than a particular size, and made sure they’re all as large as they can be to paint on. This little trick is from the first 100 days, when I quickly realized that having some sort of order is helpful to just focus on the painting.

Here’s the after—video for textural reading!:

Now that I’ve got everything ready, I’m actually excited!

Other than that, I’m back home, it’s sunny, and I’m thinking about a victory garden for the new year. I’ve always been a gardener, having slacked off the past few years. During the lockdown, the backyard was my sanctuary, and I think this combined with artwork will be my saving grace for any downtime. If you know me, you know my absolute love of red crimson clover. Here is some just hanging out for the bees.

Last night I had the owl I’d been hearing fly over my head—I’m taking it as a sign to get back outside, and get my hands in the dirt.

Lastly, I’m a fool for not mentioning my Curiosity Shoppe on here. If you’re interested in easily supporting my work, you can click here. If you would like to work together on a custom project, I’m always available to email. That’s it for now!

Will you be participating in #The100DayProject? Leave a comment if you are, and I can be sure to cheer you along. xoxo Victoria